Props to the B boys: Silicon Valley companies sweep global awards

Ali Partovi has shown a knack for a good idea. The Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur co-founded LinkExchange, which Microsoft bought in 1998 for $265 million; he then plowed some of that money into Zappos, run by his LinkExchange co-founder Tony Hsieh. And with his twin brother, Hadi (who co-founded TellMe), Partovi was a seed investor in thunder-lizards Dropbox and Facebook.

But, Partovi told me recently, these days the angel investing scene is flooded with new money from Facebook and Google, so he and his bro are focusing on new ways to make a difference. Earlier this year they started Code.org, a nonprofit that aims to encourage more students to study programming. Its launch video, featuring Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, garnered more than 10 million YouTube views in a month.

This week, Partovi has been crowing about a new list of companies that are making an outsize social and environmental impact. The second annual “Best for the World” list, compiled by nonprofit B Lab, recognized 66 outfits around the globe. More than one in five of them are based in the Bay Area, outstripping every other region.

And the top score among those 14 local companies went to Farmland LP, a real estate fund that buys conventional cropland and converts it to organic, sustainable agriculture. (It also happens to be the one on the list that the Partovis, serious green-ag believers, have invested in personally.)

“What makes the Bay Area a natural leader both in tech entrepreneurship and in social impact,” Ali Partovi said via e-mail, “is our ubiquitous sense of hope and optimism.” That may sound a bit hifalutin, but the more time you spend talking to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors who have no financial reason to keep working so damn hard, the more you believe it.

Other area companies on the B Lab list included Sungevity, which designs and installs residential solar electricity systems; and Moving Forward Education, which provides tutoring and mentoring services for under-served students. (The full list is here.) UPDATE: See the breakout of Bay Area companies below.

The Pennsylvania nonprofit awards B Corp certification to companies that meet “rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.” More than 700 enterprises around the world have earned the designation, which B Labs likens to Fair Trade certification for coffee.

The stated goal is to help consumers discover companies that treat their workers, communities and the environment the right way. Or, as B Labs officials put it, to clarify “the difference between ‘good companies’ and just good marketing.”

UPDATE – Here’s the list of valley companies who got the nod:

Alter Eco Fair Trade, which offers a large range of exquisite Fair Trade, Organic and Carbon Neutral foods, and provides market access to small farmers.

Andean Naturals, which connects 4,500 quinoa farmers in South America with US food companies, facilitating the growth of the organic and fair trade quinoa market.